9-year-old boy helps save girl from drowning at Spring Lake pool

During the summer holiday season, fun at the beach, at the lake or in a pool can quickly turn tragic with a drowning. It almost happened at a Spring Lake community pool.

Michael and Kelly McDevitt brought their two children to Spring Lake to visit their grandmother. Swimming was definitely in the plan, according to their father.

He said, "They’re fish, we can’t get them out of the water. Once they go in, it’s hard to get them out. They had swimming lessons when they were real real young."

On that day at the pool, 9-year-old Ryan McDevitt was in the right place at the right time.

He heard shouting. "Somebody yelled, grab her, and I grabbed her," Ryan said. "And then my friend’s mom jumped in and picked her up and then laid her on the ground."

It was a 3-year-old girl who had tried to grab a toy at the bottom of the pool.

"She didn’t have a floaty on. When she tried to go down there, she couldn’t hold her breath as long as me," Ryan said.

He noticed the girl face down and struggling. "I picked her up, and I turned her over and then I gave her to the adult," he said.

The girl seemed be okay but quickly was taken to a hospital overnight.

It was later when Ryan realized how serious it could have been. "She could have died," he said.

Michal McDevitt says, "I’m incredibly proud, you know, for a 9-year-old to jump into action like that and about somebody else and then ultimately, you know, save a life, makes you incredibly proud as a parent."

Ryan’s dad is an active service member at Fort Meade in Maryland.